


Velvet's Other Hope

by Sweet_Buttercream



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 07:59:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17403092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweet_Buttercream/pseuds/Sweet_Buttercream
Summary: The crew sails for Midgand for the final confrontation against Artorius and Innominat. On the ship, Velvet asks to speak to Eleanor in private, as there was something important she wanted to ask of her.A re-write of the final scene between Eleanor and Velvet in the game.





	Velvet's Other Hope

Velvet took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She glanced over at the girl leaning on the railing beside her, who was now staring out over the waves. 

It had been a tough week, as Velvet had done her best to avoid Eleanor as much as possible. Velvet wanted time to herself to think through her problems, especially the one of how to defeat Innominat without killing Phi and the therions. 

Besides, Velvet had a feeling that if she and Eleanor had been alone together, that she would have blurted out her feelings then and there. Velvet had to steel herself to make sure that something like that wouldn’t happen. Besides, now that she had a surefire way to defeat Innominat and save everyone else… It didn’t matter whether or not her plan succeeded, Velvet knew that she wouldn’t be coming back after their final confrontation with Artorius and Innominat. She couldn’t burden Eleanor with these feelings; she’d surely just end up hurting her in the end. 

Now there was something more important that she needed to say to her. 

“Eleanor, I have a favor I need to ask of you. If anything happens to me, please, take care of Laphicet.” 

“What? Why are you saying that? Is something the matter?” A look of surprise crossed Eleanor’s face, followed quickly by worry. 

“I have a theory… Innominat’s power, Phi’s power, and the therions’ power… are all fundamentally the same. There might just be a way to defeat Innominat without causing Phi and the other therions to disappear.” Velvet stood up and smiled sheepishly. “Well, I say it’s a theory, but it’s really just more of a hunch…”

Eleanor looked more and more worried as she looked up at Velvet. 

“Velvet what are you planning? You’re not going to be coming back after this, are you…?”

Velvet looked away, unable to face Eleanor directly. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said all that and made you worry unnecessarily. Please, just promise me you’ll take care of Phi.” 

“Of course I’ll take care of Laphicet! But what about you, Velvet? You’re planning on running away again, aren’t you? You’re going to bear this burden all by yourself…” 

Surprised that she could see through her so easily, Velvet turned back to look at Eleanor. 

Eleanor suddenly stood on her tiptoes and kissed Velvet. 

“I love you, Velvet.” 

When Eleanor pulled away, Velvet saw that she had tears in her eyes. 

_No, not like this…_ Velvet thought to herself. She could feel her own tears starting to well up at the corners of her eyes. 

“Why…”

“Well, you’re planning on disappearing soon, aren’t you? I thought that this might be my last chance to tell you how I feel, Velvet.” Eleanor smiled up at her. “Besides, I don’t want you to have to suffer alone. Do you remember our trip to Aball? When you were hurting after breaking those illusions, it felt like there was nothing I could do for you… I don’t want that to happen again.” 

Velvet tried to wipe her eyes with her hand, but her tears just kept on falling, until they formed a steady stream that flowed down her face. 

“I’m sorry Eleanor. I mean, I’m the Lord of Calamity… There’s no way that I could bring you happiness…” 

Eleanor quickly hugged Velvet, trying to keep the usually so stern older girl from seeing the tears that were about to fall from her own face. 

“Velvet you idiot! I don’t care about any of that! Didn’t I just say that I want to be here for you? I want to comfort you when you’re hurting!” 

Eleanor felt Velvet slowly wrap her arms around her and hug her back. 

 

After the two of them had calmed down a bit, Velvet slowly released Eleanor. She took out her comb and held it out to Eleanor. 

“I want you to have this, Eleanor. I’m sorry I can’t make you happy, so this is the best I can offer you. Will you take my comb to remember me by?” 

Wordlessly, Eleanor reached up and untied one of the ribbons in her hair. She held it out to Velvet. 

“Then I want you to take this.”

Velvet smiled gently at her. 

“Thank you, Eleanor.” 

 

————

 

It had been a few years since Velvet had sealed herself and Innominat away. Although the reconstruction of the ruined towns had been slow, they were steadily making progress. In addition, the presence of malevolence and daemons had greatly decreased, thanks to Laphi-, er, thanks to Maotelus. The faith of the people in the malakhim was slowly being restored, which meant they could confer their blessings to the land, leading to greater peace. 

“I wish you could have seen the new world you helped create, Velvet.” 

Eleanor reached into the inside of her jacket for the small wooden comb that she always kept with her. The comb was now smooth and worn from the many times she had taken it out and ran her fingers along it. Eleanor found the comb soothing to hold, and smiled as she remembered the many times when even just touching it had given her the strength to keep going. 

_Well, you’d probably tease me about being the shepherd now,_ Eleanor couldn’t help but laugh as she thought about how her new title would have put her in direct opposition to Velvet. Though her responsibilities probably wouldn’t have caused the two of them to clash. After all, they had both wanted the same thing, in the end. 

“I’m going to help build the better world that you wanted to give us, Velvet.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write something sadder, but ended up with a more hopeful ending. Well, if it turned out bittersweet, then I'm glad. 
> 
> I'm sorry that this isn't all that good. I'm a little disappointed that in the end, this fic ended up being a self-indulgent piece. Well... now that I think about it, anything I write is self-indulgent anyway lol
> 
> I started off with the plan of re-writing an in game scene, with the goal of making it gayer. But I watched it again, and the original scene is already really good anyway lol. 
> 
> I first beat the game more than two years ago, but I'm still crying over the ending. I really loved this game and the characters, especially these two. 
> 
> They have some really great interactions, what with scenes like that one showing how close they really are. Eleanor seemed to understand what Velvet meant by her request almost immediately.  
> And there was even that one time when Velvet roundhouse kicked Oscar for making a girl (Eleanor) cry.  
>   
> Eleanor would like Velvet for her kindness, her mental strength to keep going, and her willingness to self-sacrifice (like how she would always be willing to play the villain if it meant saving other people). Despite, or maybe in addition to, her tough exterior.  
> Velvet, probably started off with wanting to protect Eleanor, considering their first encounter was when Eleanor was crying. But after getting to know her, Velvet also would have been impressed by Eleanor's conviction and loyalty to her principles, and to helping others. Not to mention her determination, her purity, and her sensibility. Even her stubbornness and the fact that she's easily moved to tears are cute.  
> If they had fallen in love, maybe it'd be something like that lol
> 
> I love these characters so much it ended up being a jumpled mish-mash of thoughts, but, thank you for reading the work!


End file.
